Henry Ford is not remembered for being easy to work with, and Alfred Sloan has various biographers cataloging his failings. While each of them was famously philanthropic, neither one was necessarily likeable. Their legacy is that they turned their visions into a manufacturing empire that benefited millions.

Now waiting to be crowned the auto industry’s next legend is Elon Musk, who has a fortune already for having pioneered PayPal. He’s heading up Tesla Motors, a company started by others in 2003 to build high-performance, consumer-oriented battery-powered electric vehicles.

Unlike past automaking giants, though, Musk has a dim view of car buyers and a lack of confidence in his own products.  

Gas should be taxed to push the price to about $10/gallon, Musk told an investors conference earlier this month. “I'm not paying for the true cost of gasoline at the pump,” he said, and “since nobody's explicitly paying for the CO₂ capacity of the oceans and atmospheres, it's getting consumed. We will pay for it down the road, but we are sort of ignoring it for now."

Gas taxes may help Tesla Motors justify its products according to some agenda, but the company is in line for a little federal help already. Tesla, along with Ford Motor Co. and Nissan of North America, is sharing $25 billion from the Dept. of Energy to further develop electric vehicles. Tesla has already said it wants to “buy” defunct domestic auto plants to build its cars. I won't be surprised if a federal fund already exists for that.

It’s better that we find out now, rather than later: If buyers won’t look at these vehicles until the feds jigger the market; and if Tesla needs federal money just to get its product to the assembly stage, is this an auto company or a shell game? And if government hand-holding is going to be the path to success, why aren't Tesla's plans being implemented at GM and Chrysler?